​ This country is not great. The United States needs a man who will be honest with the American people. It needs a man who will bolster our economy. It needs a man who will push for the rights of the people. We, as a society of intelligent gun owners, need a man who will protect our sacred Second Amendment. We need a man who sticks to our values. America needs Trump. Donald J. Trump is one of the most honest people alive. The press keeps accusing Donald Trump of lies he did not tell. Politifact’s slanderous articles portray Trump as a man who has his “pants on fire.” The countless articles online and in print think Trump a fool. Trump supporters can feel in their gut that everything Trump utters is true; damn what the fools in the papers say. His ideas are always based on reality. Trump’s health is beyond amazing according to his doctor. He has tested positive in every test taken. Despite these assertions, even the doctor was “astonished” that the results were that perfect. His doctor “eye-balling” it, as opposed to using a scale, guesses Trump has lost quite a bit of weight. Also, Trump’s doctor proved himself to be quite the expert by asserting unequivocally “if elected, Donald Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” I can only hope this doctor has evaluated the previous forty-four presidents. Trump is also great at creating jobs in America. His amazing record of sky-high employment overseas shows that he can certainly create jobs at home. If he was able to create jobs in Mexico, he can create jobs anywhere. Showcasing his Americans-First attitude, Trump created an estimated 34,000 jobs at home. Some criticize Trump for having the majority of his manufacturing overseas. Why do you think Trump manufactures outside of America? He is a businessman. How do you think he is going to make money in this business-toxic economy we are in? It is clear that Trump wants the best for America. That’s why he was against Obama’s bailout of GM motors, since any company that fails once does not deserve another chance. Trump wrote many books about succeeding as a businessman-- maybe GM should have read them; Chapter 11 especially would have helped them recover. Donald Trump will be one of the most compassionate and understanding Presidents the U.S. will ever have. Trump will elevate the status of Mexicans and Hispanics in America. By locking out the rapists and drug dealers, the Hispanics we assumed to be good people can now easily get well paying jobs and bolster their image. The wall is essential in allowing the right people in. Yes, the wall is incredibly expensive, but Trump will make Mexico pay for it! How does Trump know that Mexico will pay? Luckily for Americans, we have Trump Diplomacy working for us. The first step in Trump Diplomacy is to politely discuss with a country for a year. Make sure you really get to know this country and befriend their leader. Through the entire process, make sure to let the American people know how well the negotiations are going. Sometimes, their leader will go rogue and lie to the people about how the negotiations went. You must double down and hold the country accountable. We don’t want Gold Star families thinking that they deserve to be treated with a certain reverence that comes with that title. Donald Trump will make sure every American knows that no matter what they sacrifice Trump has still sacrificed more. This goes equally as true for Purple Heart recipients since he has the bestest and purplest one.Trump is the Kremlin’s ideal candidate. His foreign policy ideas read like a Putin wish list. Trump and Putin have taken a laudatory tone towards the other. If Trump, an American candidate for President, is garnering praise from the country just last century we labeled “The Evil Empire”, then that proves that Trump will be amazing for world affairs. Plus what do we need NATO for? It’s clearly creates massive harm in the world. Touching upon leaders, Trump is quite a fan of democracy. He respects and honors glorious leaders such as: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Bashar al-Assad, and Saddam Hussein. Yes, that Vladimir Putin, the one who enacted the anti-gay ordinances in Russia. And yes that Kim Jong UN, the one who has been accused of countless human rights violations. And of course that Bashar al-Assad, the one who has been killing his own people with chemical weapons and creating the massive refugee crisis. Trump gave him an “A” in leadership proving he knows what to look for in a leader. And of course that Saddam Hussein, the one the US had to declare war on in Iraq and the one who the low estimate of his security forces civilian kill count is 250,000 people. Trump is a shining beacon of the American Dream. There is not a more qualified candidate in the race. He is truly the best example that anyone can succeed so long as their parents give them millions of dollars. Let’s make America great again.

​ ¡Hola iPrep students! In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and as part of our monthly club spotlight, it only seemed fitting to introduce the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH). This is the first year of SHH, and Mr. de Lavalle sponsors it. Melanie Rodriguez, one of the founding members, is a great resource for any students interested in joining. Melanie explains that one reason students should join is to embrace their Hispanic culture. Additionally, non-native speaking students are also encouraged to join as an opportunity to practice their Spanish, as the meetings take place in Spanish only. In order to join, students must be at least a sophomore in high school, must have at least a 3.0 GPA, and must have completed two years of Spanish. Meetings will take place on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month during lunch in addition to a meeting every fifteen days after school to mentor the middle school chapter, Sociedad Hispánica de Amistad. The club looks forward to hosting a variety of activities throughout the year. Any students who are interested in joining should speak to Mr. de Lavalle.

Suicide Squad One of the best things about the movie Suicide Squad is definitely the variety of characters and diversity of actors. Much effort is put into making each and every hero unique and individual, yet true to their DC Comic Book designs. I applaud that effort, however, while attention is truly diverted to the characters of the story, the story itself is incredibly lacking. Even at the end of the movie, I am left unsure about the direction of the plot. Viewer’s questions are left unanswered, there are tidbits of discontinuity, and overall the plot is messy and disorganized in an attempt to cater to multiple “main characters.” As someone who is personally interested in character design, I actually enjoyed the movie because I am biased in my perspective to appreciate the many diversions from the main plot line to accommodate explaining the backstory of each hero; however, if you are someone looking for a movie that centers on diversity, you may want to catch this movie, but if you NEED a well thought-out plot, Suicide Squad would not be in your favor to watch.

Kubo and the Two Strings This family friendly presentation is definitely a wonderful movie to present to any younger cousins, siblings, or family members who are genuinely interested in taking a look at the beauty that is the Japanese culture. Kubo and the Two Strings is beautifully choreographed with a gorgeous variety of characters and settings with its stop-motion arrangement. The movie itself plays out like the same tales that Kubo tells in the beginning of the movie, with action, adventure, fantasy, and even twists and turns the viewer will never expect. As ambiguous as this movie is to regular American Family Films, I would still definitely categorize Kubo and the Two Strings to be a “Feel-Good” movie. Although I recommend bringing your younger family to watch, I also recommend, perhaps, bringing both of your parents to share in the loving message this movie expresses that is not only catered to the Japanese culture, but internationally. While I watched this movie I noticed there isn’t much I could find that I disagreed! Every decision seemed to make sense in the end, even if it doesn’t have the traditional happy ending.

Morgan Just a general warning about this movie: If you’re uncomfortable with sudden very loud and shocking blasts of noise, this movie uses a jump-scare tactic in certain tense scenes in order to startle the audience despite not being a horror movie. The movie itself, however, poses a serious modern life question about the thought of artificial life and whether it is life in the first place. The diverse variety of characters all portrays different kinds of moral ambiguity when faced with this question. The beginning of Morgan is slightly slow paced; the directors of this movie definitely want to take their time with presenting this short story on film. However, I cannot emphasize how important it is to finish this movie after you’ve begun watching it because it is definitely worth the wait to complete this story as a whole in order to really know which side of the AI debate you believe. I feel like this movie is a good example of not what we should expect with subsequent artificial intelligence itself, but it involves the viewer in the questions and answers we need to discuss as the science about how AI evolves further and further.

This month in music has been more than great. There has been a constant string of events, each unfolding before the other is over. Frank Ocean finally dropped his highly awaited album, Blonde. Through constant hints and changing the release date intermittently on fans, Ocean conjured a huge online interest. The album focuses on several topical issues facing today’s society. Blonde has proved to be a hit with Ocean’s fans that have been awaiting this album for nearly FOUR years.Additionally, the Video Music Awards, more commonly known as the VMAs, took place on August 28 with Beyoncé killing the show as usual. Rather than performing one song off her new video album “Lemonade,” as is the normal expectation for an artist, she proceeded to perform almost half of her album. This supernatural occurrence went on for over 14 minutes and was undoubtedly shocking and exciting for her fans. For even more VMA news, Drake presented Rihanna with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award and expressed his not-so-subtly hidden seven-year love for the singer. This award has been won by icons like the late David Bowie, the Beatles, Madonna, the Beastie Boys, and more recently, Beyoncé, and Kanye West. As for rock music news, Green Day has released two new songs titled “Bang Bang” and “Revolution Radio.” All Time Low released their second live DVD “Straight to DVD II,” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have released a video for their new song “Go Robot.” Although this music news affects people all over the world, there are so many different events going on in our city. This month has such a wide variety of artists visiting our lovely city. Maroon 5 performed with Tove Lo and R. City at the American Airlines Arena, with Kanye West just a little over a week later on the 16th. James Bay also performed on the 21st at the Fillmore. In South Beach, the band Slayer will perform on the 28th at the Fillmore. Chance the Rapper will also be performing at the Fillmore next month so buy tickets now if you’re interested! Overall, we have many great concerts coming to Miami and so many more to come before the year-ends. Hopefully you guys are able to go and enjoy!

​ Before I even begin to explain the Netflix masterpiece that is Stranger Things, you must know what it’s about. The show takes the viewer back to the year 1983 in a small town located in Indiana. Twelve-year-old Will Byers goes missing on his way home from playing Dungeon and Dragons with his friends. It sounds simple until the viewer uncovers the chaos of a drunken cop, a hysterical mother, and a group of tweens who team up to find Byers. However, this group ends up finding out much more than they expected to know— In only eight episodes, all ranging from forty-eight minutes to an hour, this show proves to have incredible pacing and remarkable character development. Not a single aspect of this work ever seems forced or rushed. Everything takes its time and unravels seamlessly. The end of every episode the viewer anxious to find out what really did happen to poor Will Byers. In order to put it into words, let’s just say that this show literally feels like the Goonies and E.T had a baby, Stephen King delivered it, and Steven Spielberg was the crazy aunt who filmed it-- excellent. Basically it is highly recommended viewing!!

Football is back!!!!!! The highly anticipated opening week of the 2016 NFL season kicked off with an intense Super Bowl rematch of the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos on Thursday, September 8th. The Carolina Panthers attempted to redeem themselves from a 24-10 defeat during the Super Bowl 50 in February. However, just one thing prevented the Panthers from achieving their longing revenge: the Broncos brick-wall defense. With repeated blows to the reigning MVP, Panther’s Quarterback Cam Newton, the Broncos left the Carolina offense rattled and dismantled. On the other hand, Carolina’s top-notch defense held their ground and forced three turnovers to keep them within fighting distance. The Panthers got off to a fast start leading 17-7 going into the fourth quarter; however, after two consecutive touchdowns, the Broncos took a 21-17 lead with about nine minutes left in the game. After a field goal by Panthers Kicker Graham Gano, the Broncos lead was cut down to one, and the Panthers defense stood strong to force a punt by the Broncos with 3:06 minutes remaining. Cam Newton emphatically led his team down the field and set the Panthers up for a potential game-winning field goal. The Panthers were going to win, right? Wrong! The kick was wide left and the Broncos players stormed the field after a thrilling 21-20 win to open the 2016-2017 NFL season. What a way to “kick off” the season! The fun wasn’t over yet for the millions of enthusiastic football fans all over the world. Sunday, September 11th featured thirteen action-packed games from one in the afternoon all the way until eleven at night. The first week of football concluded with two games on Monday night. Many questions were raised throughout the day concerning these events, including how the Dolphins would fair against a Super-Bowl favorite Seahawks and how the New England Patriots would be able to manage without suspended quarterback (QB) Tom Brady.

Miami Dolphins-10 Seattle Seahawks-12 The Dolphins played very competitively against the heavily favored Seattle Seahawks. To the surprise of many viewers, the Dolphins led late in the game after a touchdown run by QB Ryan Tannehill. Unfortunately for them, they gave up a two-yard touchdown pass to Wide Receiver Doug Baldwin with under a minute left that gave Seattle the lead, which they did relinquish.

New England Patriots- 23 Arizona Cardinals- 21 The New England Patriots, led by backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, faced off against the Arizona Cardinals led by all-pro quarterback Carson Palmer. The Cardinals fell short after their kicker, Chandler Catanzaro, missed a potentially game-winning forty-seven yard field goal.

In all societies and at the very core of every kind of organization there must be respect. Respectis a fundamental, omnipresent value. It means treating others as you would treat yourself and being the object of such treatment. This reciprocal value, a manifestation of our empathy toward others, unites us in a very real way and is the sign of prosperity among people. Respect is especially relevant in a learning environment. Here at iPrep, respect is highly valued by our teachers, our students, and our staff. In order to gain knowledge, students must attempt to learn just as much as teachers must endeavor to nurture students’ curiosities and give them the tools to feed it. For that kind of give-and-take relationship to work properly, if not at all, a mutual RESPECT must exist between the student, who must be willing to accept the teacher’s methods, and the teacher, who must treat each student fairly, regardless of the pace at which they learn. In the like of Plato’s words from his famous chapter of The Republic titled “Allegory of the Cave”: A professor cannot “put knowledge into the soul like sight into blind eyes.” For teachers to have the ability to impact students academically, a teacher must be a coach, and a student must already have a disposition to learn. Without that RESPECT, the knowledge the teachers attempt to impart will fall onto deaf ears. ​#ValuesMatterMiami

​Protesters March Against Mexican President’s Proposal for Gay Marriage After Mexican President Pena Nieto proposed to recognize same-sex marriage throughout the country, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest. The National Front for the Family, a conglomerate of religious and civil society groups organized the demonstrations, which took place in several cities across Mexico. The group claims that it has gathered more than 100,000 signatures against the President’s proposal. Same-sex marriage is already legal in Mexico City and several states. Mexico’s Supreme Court also already ruled last year that confining marriage to a man and woman was unconstitutional. However, because many state legislatures have failed to change the laws within their regions, same-sex couples must file a legal challenge in order to get married. Pena Nieto calls to change the conservative country’s constitution, which would legalize it nationally. This is an interesting political moment for Pena Nieto, as the proposal comes in the midst of a slowing economy, drug violence, and a widely criticized meeting with U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump. Victor Sánchez, a sociologist at Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, says, “This comes as the government is showing a certain sort of fragility in other areas... and they're taking advantage of the moment.” Pena Nieto asks Congress to debate and finally settle the issue.

Uber Everywhere...Driver Nowhere to Be Found? When Uber arrived on the scene in 2008, it revolutionized transportation, slowly growing into a household name that it is today. Eight years later, it seems to be on the brink of another breakthrough: driverless cars. On September 14th, Uber introduced a fleet of self-driving cars into Pittsburgh, turning the city of brotherly love into a laboratory for a four-wheeled experiment. Why Pittsburgh? The city is home to engineering talent found in Carnegie Mellon, which has a world-class robotics program that has produced many autonomous vehicles in the past. The mayor offered his support for the program, commenting, “You can either put up red tape or roll out the red carpet. If you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet.” The test-run itself is simple. Uber selected a group of its most frequent users to participate in the experiment, allowing them to hail self-driving cars in areas of downtown Pittsburgh. The self-driving technology incorporates sensors and GPS, using pre-existing maps that tell it data like speed limits so that it can focus on another unpredictable variable: humans. The software works fine when humans follow the rules, but what happens if a car doesn’t wait their turn at a four-way stop? There are also social cues that go into play in driving that a self-driving car needs to be able to interact with if it’s driving on the road with other humans, so this is where this test will be able to provide valuable research. Nonetheless, while this a step forward, don’t expect to see driverless cars anytime soon. This is more of a research test than a rollout. But who knows, maybe in the next few years, you’ll be surprised by who you see in a passing car--or who you don’t see in the driver’s seat.

Estimated 2.6 Billion People Around The World At-Risk for Zika In February, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a global health emergency. Since then, Zika has caused epidemics in over 70 countries, including more recent cases in our very own backyard (there have been several reports in Wynwood and Miami Beach). The virus is thought to be linked to microcephaly (a condition in which a baby is born with a shrunken head). Now that “Zika” has become a buzzword that’s entered the minds of health officials and the front pages of newspapers across the world, scientists are literally set out to fight the future, as they attempt to predict the regions most vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease. Their assessments were conducted by examining the patterns of travel of people from infected regions to Asia and Africa, alongside data like mosquito populations. Through these studies, the scientists determined which regions were “at-risk,” with some of the most vulnerable countries including India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.Nonetheless, there is still much research left to be done. More than two-thirds of people infected with Zika fail to get sick or show any symptoms. In addition to that, one of the more pressing concerns is finding out the accuracy of the “2.6 billion” figure. A community's’ risk is dependent on whether or not it has previously been hit with the virus and has had the chance to develop immunity, which is still largely unknown. So, as for this fight for the future? Only time will tell.

A Tale of Two EpiPens: Life-Saving Drug’s Price Skyrockets Drug makers have spent $2.3 billion dollars lobbying last decade. Throw in the unabated growth of drug prices during the same time period despite the 15 bills passed designed to do the opposite, and you have the chemical concoction called Big Pharma, or the massive drug companies with ties to Congress stronger than the sleeping pills they’re trying to sell you.The price of the life-saving allergy drug EpiPen has skyrocketed. The wholesale price of an EpiPen in 2007 was $47; nine years later, the price is sitting a little over $600, as (per a DEA recommendation) EpiPens are no longer sold individually but rather in pairs.Hillary Clinton said the price hike was “outrageous,” and several Senators have weighed in on the issue, calling for an investigation into the price of EpiPen. Mylan, the provider for EpiPen, has already in response offered savings cards to people whose insurance doesn’t cover the cost (lowering the price to about $300); they have also made an announcement that they will front some of customers’ out-of-pocket costs. Although, with the 90,000 signatures for a petition asking Congress for an investigation (over 40,000 coming from last week alone), keep your eyes peeled and your pockets open because this certainly won’t be the last time you’ll hear about Mylan in the news.